Batteries Are the Shocking Truth about Electric Cars

President Barack Obama flew to Holland, Mich., on Thursday to attend groundbreaking ceremonies for a new lithium-ion battery plant, which the White House advertised as an example of federal stimulus grants at work and a gateway to a clean-energy future.

But Compact Power Inc., which received $151 million from a federal stimulus program to open the $303 million plant, isn’t American and neither is its technology: It’s a subsidiary of the giant South Korean conglomerate LG Chem, and its technology is Asian.

Also that age-old bugaboo for electric cars — range and battery life — is still a work in progress. General Motors says its Chevy Volt will go up to 40 miles on a single charge and will have a range-extending, gasoline-assist feature. Nissan’s fully electric car, the Leaf, will have a 100-mile range. Ditto Ford’s electric Focus. Much depends on driving conditions.

Lithium-ion batteries are way ahead of traditional lead-acid batteries in power and weight, but they aren’t perfect. As yet, the best battery is far from being a competitor for a tank of gasoline.

There’s a back story here. The most obvious narrative is the need to create jobs in Michigan, and the hope is that electric vehicles will bolster car production there.

More obscure is the administration’s belief that a brave, new clean-energy America can produce jobs and reduce the output of greenhouse gases. In Obamaland, windmills will turn silently through the night, while millions of fully electric cars get their batteries topped up in driveways and garages.

A green and pleasant land is just a few million batteries away and, by Jove, the Department of Energy is on the job. It has $2.4 million to spend on electric car infrastructure. The department is helping to bring on nine battery plants, including the one in Holland. It’s also promoting charging stations.

Some small facts: These batteries are still so expensive (about $16,000 apiece) that any fully electric car, or near so, requires subsidies down the line to get the price down to where ordinary people will buy them in quantity. The only fully electric vehicle on the market today, the Tesla, is a sports car that costs over $100,000 and is aimed at the well-heeled greens of Hollywood.

While official retail prices for the Ford, Nissan and GM models haven’t been announced, estimates are in the range of $30,000 to $35,000. Federal tax credits are likely to trim several thousand dollars for many buyers.

Batteries have stood in the way of electric cars for more than a century. In the early days of motoring, electric cars covered short distances and held promise. But while internal combustion engines revved ahead, batteries languished.

But the dream of an electric car never died, though the batteries frequently did. In the 1970s, the U.S. government spent lavishly on battery research, including lithium and aluminum air batteries. There are dozens of ways to make batteries, but all have their disadvantages: weight, disposability, life, rate of discharge and market indifference.

If you want everything you get today on a car — electric windows, air conditioning, electric seats, multiple lights, highly variable loads and easy refueling and, maybe, towing capacity — you need a hell of a battery

We have, so to speak, been shocked by presidential energy enthusiasm before. Jimmy Carter believed in liquids from coal and launched the ill-fated Synthetic Fuels Corp., and George W. Bush went hog wild over ethanol — and those expectations are being trimmed daily.

I’ll buy a hybrid and wait, if it’s OK with Obama. –For the Hearst-New York Times Syndicate

You mentioned in your op-ed [Fort-Worth Telegram, July 16, 2010] that the internal combustion engine pulled out ahead of the “battery business”? Not entirely true. Go back and look at
Baker Electric, etc. Detroit and Texas oil kept the electric car at bay.
The same for mass transit. GM under shadow companies bought up small-town
mass transit systems, trolleys and the like, during the 30’s through the
50’s. The guise was that the “transit” companies could run the systems more
efficiently than the municipalities that owned these companies. Then, the
transit companies decided to “close” these systems down due to profit
losses. Viola! No more transit companies. Up come the tracks, down come
the catenaries, and everything is now burning fossil fuels.

Should the R&D have been put into batteries beginning 90 years ago? Well, I
would not begin to imagine where we would be with electric vehicles.

Of course, when the electricity demand quadruples, we still will be using
fossil fuels. Not enough rivers and solar cells in the world.

I just read your opinion piece (“Batteries Are the Shocking Truth About Electric Cars”) in our Fort Worth Star-Telegram. In the article, you make the statement that the Tesla is “[t]he only fully electric vehicle on the market today.” That assertion is totally, 100%, wrong.

I purchased a car from this company. I have the Dash, and it is totally, 100%, electric. It’s lithium-battery technology was developed by NASA, not some foreign country. My car has a range of 120-130 miles, and it has given excellent service for all of my 15,000+ miles. It has electric windows and air conditioning, and I love it. While I believe that Li-Ion Motors has the worst marketing department in the world, it makes a great car.

By the way, I also have two hybrids. While they clearly have more range and functionality, the batteries in hybrids will not perform as long and as well as lithium batteries.

I just read your opinion piece (“Batteries Are the Shocking Truth About Electric Cars”) in our Fort Worth Star-Telegram. In the article, you make the statement that the Tesla is “[t]he only fully electric vehicle on the market today.” That assertion is totally, 100%, wrong.

I purchased a car from this company. I have the Dash, and it is totally, 100%, electric. It’s lithium-battery technology was developed by NASA, not some foreign country. My car has a range of 120-130 miles, and it has given excellent service for all of my 15,000+ miles. It has electric windows and air conditioning, and I love it. While I believe that Li-Ion Motors has the worst marketing department in the world, it makes a great car.

By the way, I also have two hybrids. While they clearly have more range and functionality, the batteries in hybrids will not perform as long and as well as lithium batteries.

Just read your article and wanted to point out a couple of points where your article misleads your readers. I’m not sure where you sourced your materials for your article, but I just returned from a press junket for the Nissan Leaf and have some different information:

1. You mentioned that the battery technology is Asian. Which is true… mainly due to the fact that the Bush administration closed down battery research altogether during the first part of the decade. Some of our top researchers were sitting around on their thumbs because their research funding was taken away. Now, back on track, NREL is making rapid advancements in battery technology, although Americans are having to play catch up.
2. Batteries are not $16,000 each… as many products in development… only in a prototype form.. not to be confused with the mass production units that will actually do into cars
3. The official word from Nissan as of yesterday if that the price of the Leaf will be $25000, not $30-35,000… that’s a completely different price range
4. As to battery life, the life span is projected to be 10 years where the battery will have been worn down to 70% capacity. They will however find another use after they are pulled from their 10 year old cars… Old lithium electric car batteries are going to be reused for short term power plant storage for the newer Solar PV power plants that will be coming online.

I wonder why you chose to omit to show the complete picture? Of course there is a always a place for Op-Ed pieces that offer differing POVs… but I must say, it’s getting more difficult to mislead the public as the tipping point of technology reaches critical mass.

Just read your article and wanted to point out a couple of points where your article misleads your readers. I’m not sure where you sourced your materials for your article, but I just returned from a press junket for the Nissan Leaf and have some different information:

1. You mentioned that the battery technology is Asian. Which is true… mainly due to the fact that the Bush administration closed down battery research altogether during the first part of the decade. Some of our top researchers were sitting around on their thumbs because their research funding was taken away. Now, back on track, NREL is making rapid advancements in battery technology, although Americans are having to play catch up.
2. Batteries are not $16,000 each… as many products in development… only in a prototype form.. not to be confused with the mass production units that will actually do into cars
3. The official word from Nissan as of yesterday if that the price of the Leaf will be $25000, not $30-35,000… that’s a completely different price range
4. As to battery life, the life span is projected to be 10 years where the battery will have been worn down to 70% capacity. They will however find another use after they are pulled from their 10 year old cars… Old lithium electric car batteries are going to be reused for short term power plant storage for the newer Solar PV power plants that will be coming online.

I wonder why you chose to omit to show the complete picture? Of course there is a always a place for Op-Ed pieces that offer differing POVs… but I must say, it’s getting more difficult to mislead the public as the tipping point of technology reaches critical mass.

I saw your op ed on batteries today in the Boulder Daily Camera. It had a cynical edge that did not strengthen the article. Why take jabs at “Obamaland” when just telling the facts will draw sufficient attention to this clearly important topic? Or do you mean to convey that you only want to reach Obama haters?

The drawbacks you cite about batteries are plausible and worth knowing. But also you did not mention the morbid picture that our oil dependency is hanging over our nation now. Flagrant subsidies for battery driven cars, however much they may be, are not well discussed unless compared with the defacto subsidies we pay into oil as we now consume it which includes a large share of our military budget to protect shipping lanes and open up new markets in say, Iraq…. with the dead end of peak oil still much in sight, according to the Joint Chiefs and the EIA.

Below, two columns of mine posted at Huffington Post (first appearing in the Boulder Daily Camera). I recommend you take a look at an innovative, fairly exhaustively researched book about battery-run cars and flex fuels called Turning Oil into Salt (the book is written from the perspective of national security). Also, about peak oil, please check out the “Missing Pie Slice”.

I saw your op ed on batteries today in the Boulder Daily Camera. It had a cynical edge that did not strengthen the article. Why take jabs at “Obamaland” when just telling the facts will draw sufficient attention to this clearly important topic? Or do you mean to convey that you only want to reach Obama haters?

The drawbacks you cite about batteries are plausible and worth knowing. But also you did not mention the morbid picture that our oil dependency is hanging over our nation now. Flagrant subsidies for battery driven cars, however much they may be, are not well discussed unless compared with the defacto subsidies we pay into oil as we now consume it which includes a large share of our military budget to protect shipping lanes and open up new markets in say, Iraq…. with the dead end of peak oil still much in sight, according to the Joint Chiefs and the EIA.

Below, two columns of mine posted at Huffington Post (first appearing in the Boulder Daily Camera). I recommend you take a look at an innovative, fairly exhaustively researched book about battery-run cars and flex fuels called Turning Oil into Salt (the book is written from the perspective of national security). Also, about peak oil, please check out the “Missing Pie Slice”.

Interesting, revealing story in today’s Fort Worth Star-Telegram about the new all-electric and hybrid cars.

What I don’t see in articles about these vehicles is how long do the batteries last and how much does it cost to replace them? I guess the battery in the hybrid Volt, for example, might last longer the battery in an all-electric car, but I’m not sure.

I found the article was necessarily provocative and the comments seem to reflect the need for a lot more thinking about batteries, oil and subsidies. Add to that the business models as alluded to in the article don’t work well with all electric vehicles. Production costs for Li-Ion batteries will go down but will the costs of the raw lithium rise is an equivalent manner. Pushing the car companies and the government to do the right things is never easy and over forecasting the value of technology has usually done more harm than good.

I found the article was necessarily provocative and the comments seem to reflect the need for a lot more thinking about batteries, oil and subsidies. Add to that the business models as alluded to in the article don’t work well with all electric vehicles. Production costs for Li-Ion batteries will go down but will the costs of the raw lithium rise is an equivalent manner. Pushing the car companies and the government to do the right things is never easy and over forecasting the value of technology has usually done more harm than good.

From KO:
From someone who is on her second battery pack in a self-built conversion and
would love to get her hands on the U.S.-made, lithium ferrous phosphate
batteries, I would like you to consider where the first gas cars were in
performance when they hit the road?
You need to be comparing the Tesla Roadster to the Ford Model A as a first-generation, mass- produced vehicle for their power source.
There is no writer I’ve read who takes into account the years of backyard mechanics, hot rodders and production engineers and designers whose efforts have raised the level of gas car to the performance possible today [ notice I didn’t say “Available”].

Of course this was done in a different era, where OEM-only rules and
overpriced junkyards [or auto recyclers] did not prohibit access to
parts and technology.

I have a project at the local Boys & Girls Club helping them to figure
out how to build their own toy EVs and later, if I can get some funding,
kid-sized protoype EV cars.
What I am really doing is trying to get them to consider their resources,skills and develop ingenuity. This is the hard haul. Their middle school is closing the woodshop and the class this fall in exchange for the trendy gardening and cooking class.

The truth is the kids need both sets of skills, but there is funding for a classroom redesign and not for a tech shop assistant.

Can I expect federal funding to go towards anything but building buildings?

Can I have some reportage that takes a deeper perspective? Do your best.

From KO:
From someone who is on her second battery pack in a self-built conversion and
would love to get her hands on the U.S.-made, lithium ferrous phosphate
batteries, I would like you to consider where the first gas cars were in
performance when they hit the road?
You need to be comparing the Tesla Roadster to the Ford Model A as a first-generation, mass- produced vehicle for their power source.
There is no writer I’ve read who takes into account the years of backyard mechanics, hot rodders and production engineers and designers whose efforts have raised the level of gas car to the performance possible today [ notice I didn’t say “Available”].

Of course this was done in a different era, where OEM-only rules and
overpriced junkyards [or auto recyclers] did not prohibit access to
parts and technology.

I have a project at the local Boys & Girls Club helping them to figure
out how to build their own toy EVs and later, if I can get some funding,
kid-sized protoype EV cars.
What I am really doing is trying to get them to consider their resources,skills and develop ingenuity. This is the hard haul. Their middle school is closing the woodshop and the class this fall in exchange for the trendy gardening and cooking class.

The truth is the kids need both sets of skills, but there is funding for a classroom redesign and not for a tech shop assistant.

Can I expect federal funding to go towards anything but building buildings?

Can I have some reportage that takes a deeper perspective? Do your best.

batteries are NOT the answer. No, instead you need “Hyper” Capacitors.
Capacitors can charge up, discharge and hold more charge vastly better than a battery can, also, they never degrade, which is inevitable in chemical batteries.
However, until recent times, capacitors had severe limits, but these are now being overcome. See “Eestor” and other companies/research in this field.
🙂

batteries are NOT the answer. No, instead you need “Hyper” Capacitors.
Capacitors can charge up, discharge and hold more charge vastly better than a battery can, also, they never degrade, which is inevitable in chemical batteries.
However, until recent times, capacitors had severe limits, but these are now being overcome. See “Eestor” and other companies/research in this field.
🙂

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